Minister of information and culture Lai Mohammed has filed a lawsuit before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja against an online publication Pointblank News over alleged libel.
Mohammed is seeking the sum of N50 billion aggravated and exemplary damages, a copy of the writ of summon obtained by NAN on Sunday read.
The defendants to the suit are publisher of the online platform, Johnson Ude, and the editor, Uduma Mba.
In the summon, the minister said the defendants exclusively published and widely circulated stories in their medium, alleging his involvement in a purported N10 billion fraud scandal.
“The defendants made a publication described as ‘Exclusive Pointblanknews.com investigations’ and written under the very bold banner and title: ‘Lai Mohammed in N10 billion Fraud Scandal as ICPC swoops on NBC’ which was published on Aug. 3, 2021.
“They published another one tagged as ‘Lai Mohammed, NBC head for showdown over N10 billion Fraud, Minister in Hot Deal with Interpol Most Wanted’ published on Aug. 11, 2021,” the summon read.
Mohammed described the alleged publications as “untrue, malicious, unfounded and wicked.”
He added that the said publications were deliberately fabricated and concocted to ridicule and bring his person to disrepute.
Mohammed said that because he was shocked and aggrieved by the publications, he directed his solicitor, Kunle Jalejaye, to write a letter dated August 5, 2021 to the defendants to retract the stories.
The plaintiff said following the failure of the defendants to retract the false publication, he approached the court to seek redress.
The suit is yet to be assigned to a judge and no date has been fixed for mention.
